Dr. Stephen Dick
Senior Research Engineer
Purdue University Bowen Laboratory
Dr. Stephen Dick Bio
Mr. Dick retired from the railroad industry with 39 years of experience in all phases of civil engineering, especially design and construction of capacity improvement projects and bridges. This included program development for a phased 250-mile project through several states. His expertise is in bending moment behavior over time of railroad loadings and their cumulative fatigue effects. He has presented papers on his research at AREMA and international rail conferences. He currently is performing research on track for FRA and bridges under the IDEAS program.
Determination Methods Needed for Cyclic Behavior of Railroad Loadings
Highway bridge engineers can depend upon examining the effects of a single truck to determine the potential for fatigue cycle accumulation. Railway bridge cycling is much more complicated in the interaction between the train and the bridge it loads. Variation in equipment and train types add to the complexity of any fatigue analysis.